Caves In Great Lakes No Longer Safe To Visit - Picture Highlights Here

LELAND, MICH. 3/14/14 – Authorities in northern Michigan say it's no longer safe to visit spectacular ice caves that have formed along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

Milder temperatures and high winds have broken up the ice sheet on the lake side of the formations, and open water is visible near the caves. Large cracks have opened on some of the arches.

Thousands of people flocked to the area to see the caves last weekend, with lines of cars stretching more than 2 miles along narrow rural roads in Leelanau County, northwest of Traverse City.

A 21-year-old man was seriously injured Wednesday after falling 12 feet from one of the caves.

Here are some great photos taken by visitors:

Next is the story as we posted it back in February with all of those great pictures:

It’s been so cold for so long in the midwest that the Great Lakes are almost completely covered with ice. The last time they came this close was in 1994, when 94% of the lakes’ surface was frozen. As of Thursday, ice cover extended across 88%, according to the federal government’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor

People walk past a cave at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in northern Wisconsin. The caves are usually accessible only by water, but Lake Superior’s rock-solid ice cover is letting people walk to them for the first time since 2009. Photograph: Brian Peterson/AP

The caves have been transformed into into a dazzling display of ice sculptures by the arctic siege gripping the upper midwest. Photograph: Brian Peterson/AP

In this photo from 2 February 2014 people visit the caves at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in northern Wisconsin, transformed into a dazzling display of ice sculptures by the arctic siege gripping the upper midwest. Photograph: Brian Peterson/AP